This all sounds a lot like the moral panic around alcohol, which led to Prohibition in the 1920’s. And that turned out so well…for organized crime.,
This is also the same type of panic which showed up around dancing, comic books, movies, TV and a whole host of other forms of entertainment down through the years. At some point, we need to accept that entertainment can be addictive, and too much can be bad, but that’s not a legal (or tort) problem, but a social one. We don’t need to give credibility to the [Jack Thompsons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(activist\)) of the world with their pearl clutching and attempts to control everyone. Instead, we need to be offering help and treatment to those who have trouble self-regulating.
At the same time, I’m all for taxing the hell out of microtransactions, much like many nations do with alcohol. Put it on a sliding scale. Directly buying cosmetics which do not affect gameplay can be on the lower bound with a marginal tax. Anything which has an effect on gameplay gets taxed at a higher rate. Anything which involves a random chance is either directly outlawed or taxed at a crippling rate. And “points/coins/gems/widgets” as a required currency to buy anything is flat our outlawed and the people who came up with the idea get fed feet first into a chipper shredder.
This all sounds a lot like the moral panic around alcohol, which led to Prohibition in the 1920’s. And that turned out so well…for organized crime.,
This is also the same type of panic which showed up around dancing, comic books, movies, TV and a whole host of other forms of entertainment down through the years. At some point, we need to accept that entertainment can be addictive, and too much can be bad, but that’s not a legal (or tort) problem, but a social one. We don’t need to give credibility to the [Jack Thompsons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(activist\)) of the world with their pearl clutching and attempts to control everyone. Instead, we need to be offering help and treatment to those who have trouble self-regulating.
At the same time, I’m all for taxing the hell out of microtransactions, much like many nations do with alcohol. Put it on a sliding scale. Directly buying cosmetics which do not affect gameplay can be on the lower bound with a marginal tax. Anything which has an effect on gameplay gets taxed at a higher rate. Anything which involves a random chance is either directly outlawed or taxed at a crippling rate. And “points/coins/gems/widgets” as a required currency to buy anything is flat our outlawed and the people who came up with the idea get fed feet first into a chipper shredder.